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Face-to-face school - anyone else's kids start yet?


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6 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

I actually completely agree with you on this - the new playground equipment is so overly bubble-wrapped that I fear kids aren't learning important proprioceptive skills.

I'm just newly a fan of monkey bars having a bit more space between them (not eliminating them).  

We went to a museum in Switzerland and were shocked to find adult saws, hatchets, etc. in the kids area for them to work/play with. It floored us. And no supervision. We were NOT used to seeing that in the US! 

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51 minutes ago, whitestavern said:

Any idea why the discrepancy? And who do we believe? 

this is showing 454 deaths through 8/21 in 0-18 year olds (still provisional): https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-on-Ages-0-18-Yea/nr4s-juj3

ETA: the CDC director was talking about 400 pediatric deaths already back in July: https://news.yahoo.com/children-not-supposed-die-cdc-213203164.html

Edited by kokotg
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31 minutes ago, kokotg said:

this is showing 454 deaths through 8/21 in 0-18 year olds (still provisional): https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-on-Ages-0-18-Yea/nr4s-juj3

ETA: the CDC director was talking about 400 pediatric deaths already back in July: https://news.yahoo.com/children-not-supposed-die-cdc-213203164.html

And IIRC, that doesn't count the MIS-C deaths, right? 

Edited by Not_a_Number
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7 hours ago, KSera said:

Yikes. Look at the diagram of how the teacher spread it to the students. Who's going to want their student in the front row of a classroom with an unmasked teacher right now?  I think kids all need to be eating outdoors, too.

 

Looking at this CDC study again (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7035e2.htm) it is pretty troubling to me that the classroom had windows and door open and a HEPA filter running and still this result. What we don't know is what the result would have been if the teacher had kept her mask on. And of course, had she not been attending social gatherings and then attending school with symptoms, that would likely have stopped it as well. The open windows and door plus high efficiency HEPA filter makes me worry there's no way to do this safely 😥.

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11 hours ago, regentrude said:

Weep. Jesus would weep.

 

11 hours ago, ktgrok said:

This is a phrase that I only became aware of recently, and man...I've had a lot of chances to use it 😞

Jesus wept bc of his LOVE of mankind and bc of his sorrow and sadness that people die. He saw his friends weeping bc of Lazarus being dead and it moved him. It also shows his truly dual nature…He is human, he weeps. And He is God, bc he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The two of you imply that Jesus wept bc he is ashamed of humanity which is incorrect.
 

He wept from his love and compassion and sorrow for our pain.

 

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15 minutes ago, pinball said:

Jesus wept bc of his LOVE of mankind and bc of his sorrow and sadness that people die. He saw his friends weeping bc of Lazarus being dead and it moved him. It also shows his truly dual nature…He is human, he weeps. And He is God, bc he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The two of you imply that Jesus wept bc he is ashamed of humanity which is incorrect.

He wept from his love and compassion and sorrow for our pain.

Huh? Seeing how many people are dying, Jesus would have a lot of weeping to do.

And seeing how bluntly humans disregard the command to love their neighbors can only contribute to Jesus' tears. Because it must feel to him as if his whole sacrifice was pointless. 

God probably weeps, too. Or maybe He's gotten so fed up with humans that He no longer cares. I wouldn't blame Him.

Eta: and it has to be especially painful for Jesus to see that humans who don't give a crap about their fellow humans label themselves by his name.

Edited by regentrude
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1 minute ago, regentrude said:

Huh? Seeing how many people are dying, Jesus would have a lot of weeping to do.

And seeing how bluntly humans disregard the command to love their neighbors can only contribute to Jesus' tears. Because it must feel to him as if his whole sacrifice was pointless. 

God probably weeps, too. Or maybe He's gotten so fed up with humans that He no longer cares. I wouldn't blame Him.

You are missing the point. 

Once Jesus sacrificed his life, all humanity now has the chance for ETERNAL life. He wept BEFORE this happened. He conquered death for ALL humanity when he gave himself up to be crucified.

This kind of response…that Jesus (who is God) thinks his sacrifice is pointless is just ridiculous. You think since you think this way, Jesus must, too. That’s not how it works.

Besides, aren’t you an atheist?

 

 

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14 hours ago, regentrude said:


I am not in favor of frivolous law suits, but if a teacher unmasks in school (where a mandate exists!) and gives half the class Covid, the parents should sue. (Have been wondering this for a while: people in this country sue for all kinds of nonsense - why don't we hear of law suits against people who recklessly infect others?)

There are also “mask breaks” in schools that have mask mandates. I don’t get that at all. Kids take off their masks for a few minutes in the same classroom where they sit all day.... 

I understand the need for mask breaks, but I don’t understand the logic, safety-wise, of taking them off in the classroom. 

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14 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

It appears that the school no longer notifies all of the parents when there is a positive COVID case in the school. That explains why I haven't been hearing about it. I thought it was suspicious that COVID is spreading so much in the area but I didn't hear about new cases at all. They only send notice if your child is in the classroom with a confirmed case. 

It's so amazing to me that they want to keep this quiet. 

Where I live, there is info posted weekly on the school district's website and on the state Covid dashboard.  (We've never had other kinds of notifications except if our own kid was a "close contact" i.e. needed to quarantine.)  Maybe your area has started doing it that way also.

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12 minutes ago, SKL said:

Where I live, there is info posted weekly on the school district's website and on the state Covid dashboard.  (We've never had other kinds of notifications except if our own kid was a "close contact" i.e. needed to quarantine.)  Maybe your area has started doing it that way also.

My district does not have a dashboard.  The only info we can find is in the state dashboard which is a minimum a week behind, and I don't think our district reports accurately either.

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Well, this is interesting. I've compared two of these counties an awful lot over the past year (the one I live in and the one that's within spitting distance of my house), but someone compiled the data on all the metro Atlanta school districts, and there's a pretty clear pattern about mask mandates, even though there are some individual outliers (ETA: yeah, and there's one county (it's the one where we used to live/my husband used to teach) where 3.5% of the students tested positive IN TWO WEEKS) Disclaimer: I haven't verified her numbers; it's all publicly available information:

 

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On 8/27/2021 at 2:04 PM, regentrude said:

I don't know what is going on at SUNY, but a very simple explanation (that does not require ascribing any nefarious motives to anybody) could be that students pose a much higher risk to one another than the professor to the students or other professors.


My 140 students sit shoulder on shoulder in a packed lecture hall.
I stand at the podium, a comfortable 10+ feet away.

My students share dorm rooms, showers, dining halls.
I go home where I share living space with only my immediate family.

(ETA: I am vaccinated anyway, as are all of my colleagues I have spoken to)

In addition, at least at some schools some of the health requirements apply only to residential students for this reason-that meningitis, for example, is a lot more likely to be spread in the dorms and dining halls than in Calculus 101, especially in schools which don't have infirmary space, so sick kids are given prescriptions and sent to recuperate in their dorm rooms. Most colleges didn't until last year when quarantine was seen as necessary, even after the measles outbreaks in the 1990's among residential students at some colleges (which led in turn to many schools mandating an additional measles vaccine). 

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18 hours ago, pinball said:

You are missing the point. 

Once Jesus sacrificed his life, all humanity now has the chance for ETERNAL life. He wept BEFORE this happened. He conquered death for ALL humanity when he gave himself up to be crucified.

This kind of response…that Jesus (who is God) thinks his sacrifice is pointless is just ridiculous. You think since you think this way, Jesus must, too. That’s not how it works.

Besides, aren’t you an atheist?

 

 

Have you considered how this comes across to non Christians? Do you think it makes them interested to learn more about this Jesus and want to be more like his followers? It doesn’t. This all makes me weep because I actually think the Jesus regentrude describes (who sounds like the Jesus I know) would draw people to him. Shutting people out of the “club” because they are atheists is clearly not a WWJD moment. 

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5 hours ago, KSera said:

Have you considered how this comes across to non Christians? Do you think it makes them interested to learn more about this Jesus and want to be more like his followers? It doesn’t. This all makes me weep because I actually think the Jesus regentrude describes (who sounds like the Jesus I know) would draw people to him. Shutting people out of the “club” because they are atheists is clearly not a WWJD moment. 

Non-Christians might want to know that Christianity has some basic beliefs. One is that God made humans in his image, not the other way around. 

If people want to twist God into their image, that’s their choice. If someone who doesn’t even believe in God does it, I’d wonder why? 

Im sure the next step if for others to jump in, call me me names, complain about getting the thread back on topic, and explain how to put me on ignore or whatever it is called.


 

 

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1 hour ago, pinball said:

complain about getting the thread back on topic

I’ll take the responsibility for having dragged it back off topic again. It seemed important to make clear for others reading that that post did not speak for Christians in general. So much harm to the church the last few years 😥

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DD's college is requiring testing of everyone as they are getting to campus.  They did a big testing day the end of last week.  They had .4% test positive, 2 students and 1 staff.  She was feeling pretty good about the numbers.  The school is doing a good job for the most part with following covid guidelines to keep people safe.

I am concerned about this coming week here, however.  Our K-12 schools start and there is a mask mandate, but there are a lot of parents protesting, and I fear that some teachers will not be following the mandate or enforcing it.  I am so glad my brother, who is a teacher, was able to get his booster shot because of his immune issues.  Our numbers are already high, percent positivity is around 28.7% and climbing, and our hospital is overwhelmed with tents set up outside for the overflow.  I worry starting school right now will be a disaster, but I pray I am wrong.

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2 minutes ago, Loowit said:

Our numbers are already high, percent positivity is around 28.7% and climbing,

Yikes, that’s high. Hopefully we start finding mask mandates are enough to prevent out of control outbreaks in the schools. I don’t expect it will prevent them all. 

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1 hour ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

I've been wondering why there weren't cases in the school. There was another positive in DD's class on Friday and I noticed that the school wasn't emailed. I emailed the principal yesterday to ask how many children have tested positive. 

She responded today, 5 positives total. They are no longer sending notice to the school. They send notice to the parents of the children in the classroom. They send children home if there is a "close contact." "Close contact" is defined as being within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes of a child who is positive. If both children are wearing masks, they are not considered a close contact. She claimed this consistent with the CDC guidance. 

I'm super annoyed. My DD wears a mask so that means that if she's exposed to another child who wears a mask that we wouldn't be notified that she was within 6 feet. We would only be told that she was in the classroom with an effected child. 

This seems ridiculous to me. None of the masks worn by the children are that great, including the one that DD wears. 

Plus I think I should know if DD is close to another child who tested positive. Also they basing the close contact on where they sit in the classroom, not who they sit with at lunch. 

This is very similar to our school's policy last year. Except that they did quarantine people who sat together at lunch, more than those who sat near each other in classrooms, because during lunch the masks were off. We got a lot of letters about Covid in my kids' classrooms, but there was only one time that one of my kids had to quarantine, for sharing a lunch table. My kids did not get Covid last year (well, DD19 did, but she was away at college, not the high school).

This year, they are planning to only notify parents if a certain level of Covid positives are in one classroom, not for just one case. There was no explanation of how they determine when to notify, exactly.

Our school had a Covid dashboard last school year, but they took it down.

I was not happy with the way our district and health department did everything last year, but things went better than anyone expected. This year, they have returned to normal operations for most things and seem to think that this year will go better than last year. I'm worried that it will be worse, because they have removed so many of the protections, and Delta is so contagious.

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47 minutes ago, Loowit said:

DD's college is requiring testing of everyone as they are getting to campus.  They did a big testing day the end of last week.  They had .4% test positive, 2 students and 1 staff.  She was feeling pretty good about the numbers.  The school is doing a good job for the most part with following covid guidelines to keep people safe.

I am concerned about this coming week here, however.  Our K-12 schools start and there is a mask mandate, but there are a lot of parents protesting, and I fear that some teachers will not be following the mandate or enforcing it.  I am so glad my brother, who is a teacher, was able to get his booster shot because of his immune issues.  Our numbers are already high, percent positivity is around 28.7% and climbing, and our hospital is overwhelmed with tents set up outside for the overflow.  I worry starting school right now will be a disaster, but I pray I am wrong.

Teachers are also mandated to get vaccinated.  Have you heard anything about that? 

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Ugh my kid who has OCD just went on a rant about her worries.  I have had a runny nose (not unusual for me), and she suddenly said, "do you have the Delta variant?  Because if you have it you're going to give it to me and then I'll go to school and give it to a bunch of kids who will take it home to their parents and grandparents and people will die."  I pointed out that if I get Delta, it will be because my kids brought it home from school, since I'm not around other people.

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1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Teachers are also mandated to get vaccinated.  Have you heard anything about that? 

They are fighting that too. Many are threatening to quit. I am not sure how many actually will. We have a pretty low vaccination rate in our county ans it isn't going up much at all. There is a lot of misinformation and conspiracy theories going around on local social media. 

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My "kid" (my DD) is now a Young Adult. Today is her FDOC in her "Semester Abroad" program in Germany.  She was switched, with millions of other students in the USA, suddenly, from in-person classes to online courses, early in 2020. This is her return to in-person classes and I am sure that it will be different for her and the other students who make that transition.

The university in Germany normally has approximately 200 students in their "Semester Abroad" programs. This semester there are 40 plus.  With time, more students will be attending in-person courses.

Edited by Lanny
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My eldest decided to put on a mask when exiting the car this morning.  My other daughter told me that maybe 5% of kids in their school mask.  Since our vax rates among teens are not super high, I think there should be more masking, but I understand it's not easy to be the one who stands out in high school.

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9 hours ago, SKL said:

Ugh my kid who has OCD just went on a rant about her worries.  I have had a runny nose (not unusual for me), and she suddenly said, "do you have the Delta variant?  Because if you have it you're going to give it to me and then I'll go to school and give it to a bunch of kids who will take it home to their parents and grandparents and people will die."  I pointed out that if I get Delta, it will be because my kids brought it home from school, since I'm not around other people.

This is so sad. I hope she is OK.

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14 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

It isn’t easy.  I think asking kids to take on that burden for themselves rather than the adults (in this case school staff, this isn’t a criticism of your parenting) is so unfair.

I don't know if the teachers are generally masking.  I will need to ask my kids about that.  It is strongly recommended but not required in our district.  At least some of the teachers are recommending it, so I assume they are following their own advice.

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2 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.

What I mean is that when we “recommend” masks we put kids in the difficult position of needing to make a decision that someone will judge them for it.  On the other hand, when we require masks, then kids are spared that, and the adults carry the burden.

Yes, but honestly, I think high schoolers are old enough to take some responsibility.  Not saying it's easy, but life isn't easy.

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Quick update on my daughter's Health teacher: The principal said the teacher's mask is okay. I can't find anything other than recommendations from the state that masks be a tight-weaved fabric. So I guess there's nothing that can be done from a legal perspective.

But from an ethical perspective, this teacher is a hot mess.

I cannot engage in a big fight over this. I have to choose my battles. My daughter will continue to report to the counselor's office for class so at least she won't be exposed to this person's toxicity and misinformation. 

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2 hours ago, SKL said:

Yes, but honestly, I think high schoolers are old enough to take some responsibility.  Not saying it's easy, but life isn't easy.

Yes, but as we have seen from stores and rules about "if you are unvaccinated, you should mask," adults are completely unable to take on this responsibility as a collective.  

It's so much better if it's mandated from on high.  Kids don't have to stick out and worry about being teased by other kids.  It's just the rule.  

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My six year old is over quarantine and her brother never got sick. We actually had a fight this weekend about wearing masks in public. I thought he was pulling my leg! He used to be super pro-mask and then suddenly he thinks he's immune to covid because he was in a house with two covid positive people (dd and dh) at dh's house. Not only was he in the home with them, at one point he ate off her plate of food. I was like WHAT. In a lapse of memory/covid brain/whatever, dh apparently told ds to finish dd's food and ds took a bite without thinking. I said well it's great you didn't get sick, but I just think you should still wear a mask in public. I explained my reasoning and he was irritated (which I sorta get.... I tend to worry what others think more than he does). I said it looks bad if we go to the church without masks when the priest urges people to wear one. He pointed out that it was optional and I said yes, but the priest would like us to and I think it makes others more comfortable. When we go to Mass Saturday night there wasn't much of a crowd and we were spaced out so I said ok you can remove it if you want (but I make them wear them in the Communion line at least). Well ironically the lady two pews in front of me without a mask on sneezed and I sneezed during Mass. I later said see, you never know when someone will sneeze. He decided to keep his mask on the entire service, though. I was actually really disappointed at how few people wore masks to the service. But it will not stop me from wearing mine. 

The clinic closed today for weather so I can't get my second vaccine this afternoon. I don't know when they can reschedule. Hopefully I can go later this week. After all that has happened I asked the kids if people on campus are wearing masks and ds said not really and that he's seen the headmaster walking around campus without one on. UGH. These are the models my kids have. Makes me so mad. 

In case anyone is wondering, dd's main symptoms were upset stomach and sore throat but the sore throat may have been from the strep. Even last night she complained of a tender injection site from the antibiotics they gave her for strep.  

Just FYI, it took 4 days for dh to get his 3-day test results. I can't remember if I already posted about that. And he had a whole list of symptoms. Then to add salt to the wound he found out they are not giving "covid sick days" at work this year so he had to use 10 days (which I think mostly came from his vacation) during quarantine. 

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I live in Boston. The state educational authorities have mandated masks and I believe the city's public school is making vaccines strongly encouraged. The local right wing (politically as well as religiously) Orthodox Jewish day school just published their covid guidelines on Friday (they start tomorrow), which are no masks mandated as well as no vaccines mandated by staff, faculty, or students. There is a minority of families who are very upset.

The Orthodox Jewish girl's high school my daughter attends will publish their guidelines today (they start Wednesday). My husband was on the reopening committee last year. This year he was not asked to join. The doctors in the committee told him that they aren't going to push because they have been harassed by community members. Some board members are pro-mitigation, but most aren't. I told my DH that we won't donate to any school that doesn't advocate for robust mitigation systems. All the other Jewish schools in the area will mask and require vaccines as much as they can.

I'm so tired of feeling disdain (or worse) for my fellow Jews.

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16 minutes ago, YaelAldrich said:

I live in Boston. The state educational authorities have mandated masks and I believe the city's public school is making vaccines strongly encouraged. The local right wing (politically as well as religiously) Orthodox Jewish day school just published their covid guidelines on Friday (they start tomorrow), which are no masks mandated as well as no vaccines mandated by staff, faculty, or students. There is a minority of families who are very upset.

The Orthodox Jewish girl's high school my daughter attends will publish their guidelines today (they start Wednesday). My husband was on the reopening committee last year. This year he was not asked to join. The doctors in the committee told him that they aren't going to push because they have been harassed by community members. Some board members are pro-mitigation, but most aren't. I told my DH that we won't donate to any school that doesn't advocate for robust mitigation systems. All the other Jewish schools in the area will mask and require vaccines as much as they can.

I'm so tired of feeling disdain (or worse) for my fellow Jews.

Isn't Israel already doing the experiment of what happens if you don't mask and don't vaccinate? 😕 The death numbers are really not great, despite the high levels of vaccination... 

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UPDATE: my DD's school will follow the other ultra "religious" schools in not requiring masks nor vaccination. Nor even testing after people go away to other locations to visit family (even though that's how most of the outbreaks began last year). I am SO f'in angry right now. The head of the school has a daughter with a lung illness for goodness sake! They pray for her but refuse to keep her family safer? WTH?  

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Metro public school system here has roughly 4000 people in quarantine and over 600 positive cases.

They have no provision for virtual classes this year. Masks are required, but idk how well that is enforced.

Glad my kids are not in this system! Sad for those who are having to endure both delta and chaos in school.

eta: 86K students in the system. 

Edited by ScoutTN
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11 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Metro public school system here has roughly 4000 people in quarantine and over 600 positive cases.

They have no provision for virtual classes this year. Masks are required, but idk how well that is enforced.

Glad my kids are not in this system! Sad for those who are having to endure both delta and chaos in school.

600?  Well, Hillsborough County Public Schools have that beat - try 6000.

6,153 reported employee and student cases since Aug. 2.  School started Aug. 10. To put this in perspective, "there were 8,771 cases if COVID-19 reported to the district between March 2020 and July 2021." 17 months vs. less than 1 month.  Tighter mask mandate was implemented Aug. 18, I believe? So far, I am seeing no signs that it has helped whatsoever. Yesterday's numbers were 399 students, 56 employees who reported positive test results.  Total current district impact is 9,134 in quarantine, but this number fluctuates as people get cleared.  We're still getting almost daily calls that students in my son's high school are infected - 73 students and 9 employees so far.

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7 hours ago, ikslo said:

600?  Well, Hillsborough County Public Schools have that beat - try 6000.

6,153 reported employee and student cases since Aug. 2.  School started Aug. 10. To put this in perspective, "there were 8,771 cases if COVID-19 reported to the district between March 2020 and July 2021." 17 months vs. less than 1 month.  Tighter mask mandate was implemented Aug. 18, I believe? So far, I am seeing no signs that it has helped whatsoever. Yesterday's numbers were 399 students, 56 employees who reported positive test results.  Total current district impact is 9,134 in quarantine, but this number fluctuates as people get cleared.  We're still getting almost daily calls that students in my son's high school are infected - 73 students and 9 employees so far.

 How big is the district?!

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